The present invention relates to an electrophotographic recording material including an electrically conductive substrate, a blocking layer that is disposed on the substrate and is composed of an amorphous material containing silicon atoms, hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms, and a photoconductive layer of hydrogenated amorphous silicon adjacent the blocking layer.
Such an electrophotographic recording material is disclosed in German Patent 3,136,141, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,425. The blocking layer prevents charge carriers from escaping from the conductive substrate into the photoconductive layer. On the other hand, the blocking layer has such a configuration that it enables charge carriers produced by the radiation of light into the photoconductive layer to travel through the blocking layer to the substrate. These characteristics of the blocking layer are essentially realized in that the amorphous silicon in the blocking layer has a carbon content of 60 to 90 atom %. However, one of the drawbacks of the prior art electrophotographic recording material is that the surface potential experiences a drop in dark discharge that is too rapid and, particularly under the influence of a very intensive irradiation of light, degradation, and thus a change in the photoconductive layer is observed during the discharging process. This degradation essentially results in worsening of the contrast of the resulting image.